Maja Kolega and Marija Džaja Sikirić from the Department for International Relations, attended the 35th EAIE Gothenburg 2025 Conference and Exhibition, held from 9 to 12 September in Gothenburg (Sweden).
Since the University of Zadar received the ESCI Champion award in July 2025 for the implementation of the digital tool Erasmus+ Without Paper (EWP) Dashboard and became the national ESCI Champion for EWP 2025–2027, the representatives of the University of Zadar also took part in the full-day introductory meeting for universities awarded this recognition, titled The in-person kick-off meeting of the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI) Champions 2025–2027. The meeting took place at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Gothenburg, while the remaining conference activities were held at the Svenska Mässan Exhibition and Congress Centre. During the meeting and related activities, participants discussed the two-year action plan and possible ways of organizing it. They also addressed concrete challenges encountered in the use of the EWP Dashboard, while exchanging experiences and examples of good practice.
In addition to the kick-off meeting, the representatives of the University of Zadar participated in the EAIE Gothenburg 2025 Conference and Exhibition, which this year brought together more than 7,000 exhibitors and participants. They represented the University of Zadar at the EU-CONEXUS booth, where they had the opportunity to inform interested participants about the University and the Alliance, as well as to hold pre-arranged meetings with existing partners and with representatives of foreign universities interested in future academic cooperation, particularly within Erasmus+ BIP and KA171 projects.
They also visited the Study in Croatia booth, where they held informal meetings with exhibitors and visitors. On the second-to-last day of the conference, they took part in a reception, which provided another opportunity for conversations and networking with representatives of existing Erasmus+ partner universities and colleagues from Croatian institutions.
Beyond the exhibition itself, the participants also had the opportunity to attend useful training sessions held in parallel with the exhibition, such as Nominations in EWP Dashboard, Shaping the Future of the European Student Card, Ignite: Partnerships, Strategies and Intercultural Competencies, Ignite: Engagement and Impact in Short-term Student Mobility, as well as the focus group Improving the EAIE Website.